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posted by chromas on Wednesday June 13 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the bells-will-be-ringing dept.

As Europe's latest copyright proposal heads to a critical vote on June 20-21, more than 70 Internet and computing luminaries have spoken out against a dangerous provision, Article 13, that would require Internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. The group, which includes Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the Mozilla Project Mitchell Baker, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, and net neutrality expert Tim Wu, wrote in a joint letter that was released today:

By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet, from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/internet-luminaries-ring-alarm-eu-copyright-filtering-proposal


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by black6host on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:10AM (6 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:10AM (#692190) Journal

    Back in the day, we ran BBS's. Some, like mine, at no charge to those who cared to dial in. We communicated all over the world via FidoNet, we played games, we did all kinds of stuff.

    Yeah, I know, no copper lines anymore so those days are gone. But, we have a lot of new technology, and much more to come, to overcome that. One day we won't be so dependent on a few central providers, we will interconnect ourselves, again. That makes the copyright proposal much harder to enforce.

    Ok, maybe just a dream but if you piss off enough people it could come true...

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:50AM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 13 2018, @02:50AM (#692197) Journal

    One day we won't be so dependent on a few central providers

    That is exactly what the Powers That Be are working to prevent. From the US, to Australia, to Russia, to China, and Vietnam - gubbermint wants to control what you access, and business wants to be part of that control.

    ISP's are already guilty of throttling content that they don't like, such as torrenting. It's a small step to blocking anything they don't like. Sure, you can try to disguise your torrents by using a non-standard port, but you're not really fooling anyone. If you are partly successful in disguising your traffic, the ISP can just shut you down, completely.

    And, that is not likely to change, any time soon. The internet has been built in such a fashion that you need an ISP. Any attempt to get around that middleman will be answered by law enforcement, the courts, and congress, in a manner that none of us likes.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by black6host on Wednesday June 13 2018, @03:19AM

      by black6host (3827) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @03:19AM (#692204) Journal

      If it comes down to the internet is no longer useful than what else is there to say but screw the internet? We will find a way. Technology has advanced too far to eliminate dissemination of information. That's the important part, the rest is just fluff.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:36AM

      by isostatic (365) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:36AM (#692300) Journal

      Nothing stops me from running some fiber from point A to point B, landing it on my own router, and other people doing the same thing - just get permission from the land owners (or in reality buy some dark fibre from someone who's already done that)

      We can then exchange routes between us, and any other network that's happy to peer with us. Some networks may even transit.

      It's not rocket science.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @05:40AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @05:40AM (#692240)

    But in order for it to be useful, we either need point to point wifi links hoping borders (whether city, county, province/state, or national), and all the accoutrements of a replacement internet, designed with trustless decentralization, something that the current generation of internet lacks. If we can get all this done, and keep the ISM bands open to wifi usage in cross-border compatible spectrums, then we can use cheap and readily available radio equipment to build around censorship everywhere it rears its head (which more and more appears to be both the overtly and covertly authoritarian countries.)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:03PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:03PM (#692524)

      We honestly could today.

      The biggest shift will be explaining that IPv* is part of the problem, and that a protocol is the fundamental part of the solution.

      Such a protocol would have to be topology independent, and feature automated routing and be tolerant of bad actors.

      Not insuperable.

      • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:21PM

        by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 13 2018, @11:21PM (#692595) Homepage Journal

        The biggest shift will be explaining that IPv* is part of the problem, and that a protocol is the fundamental part of the solution.
        Such a protocol would have to be topology independent, and feature automated routing and be tolerant of bad actors.

        The problem with that is every single router on the entire Internet would have to be replaced.

        Not gonna happen.

        --
        jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A